Casting begins for Order of the Seven

CB Droege, 13th February 2012

You would think that with of all the studios working on Snow White adaptations, Disney would be the one out front, leading the charge ahead of the competition.

Instead, the studio's upcoming Snow White movie is moving like molasses after spending nearly ten years in development hell.

It was only last summer when the two rival Snow White films - Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman and Relativity’s then still unnamed Mirror Mirror - were just kicking off their PR campaigns, that Disney dusted the mothballs off its Order of the Seven.

As you may recall, Order of the Seven was previously titled Snow and the Seven - and along with a new title came a new director and a freshly rewritten screenplay.

Since then, we’ve pretty much heard nothing about the project, and I had assumed it had been abandoned again. However, it now seems that debut director Michael Gracey has cast Saoirse Ronan in the lead role, which is that of a British woman who befriends a small band of international outlaws in Hong Kong.

Yes, it seems almost as if Disney has effectively abandoned the notion of making the film a true Snow White story, with the new script sounding more like an adaptation of Seven Samurai than Snow White.

With the lead cast, expect the remainder of the cast lineup to follow quickly, and for production to begin as soon as this fall. The plan is apparently to have Order of the Seven in theaters for the 2013 blockbuster season.